An A320 flight crew received an ECAM capt tat warning on short final in heavy rains. They made a saf...

Narrative:

On short final approach we received an ECAM 'capt tat' message during flight through bands of heavy rain. We continued and completed the landing with normal indications. Once on the ground the ECAM disappeared. I contacted maintenance control and wrote it up in the logbook. One theory of a recent overwater high altitude accident is that the tat probe filled with water while flying through a thunderstorm and iced up; negatively impacting pitot/static systems. The heavy rain we encountered prior to landing may have done the same since we had a strong 30 KTS cross wind coming from the captain's side; potentially filling the tat probe with water. We were not at altitude so there was no icing potential. We experienced no obvious difference in air speed or altitude indication. I believe the aircraft manufacturer; the NTSB; the FAA; maintenance and our company need to address this issue.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 flight crew received an ECAM Capt TAT warning on short final in heavy rains. They made a safe landing after which the message disappeared. Maintenance was advised.

Narrative: On short final approach we received an ECAM 'Capt TAT' message during flight through bands of heavy rain. We continued and completed the landing with normal indications. Once on the ground the ECAM disappeared. I contacted Maintenance Control and wrote it up in the logbook. One theory of a recent overwater high altitude accident is that the TAT probe filled with water while flying through a thunderstorm and iced up; negatively impacting pitot/static systems. The heavy rain we encountered prior to landing may have done the same since we had a strong 30 KTS cross wind coming from the Captain's side; potentially filling the TAT probe with water. We were not at altitude so there was no icing potential. We experienced no obvious difference in air speed or altitude indication. I believe the aircraft manufacturer; the NTSB; the FAA; Maintenance and our company need to address this issue.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	967055
Time
Date	201108
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	PHL.TRACON
State Reference	PA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A320
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Pitot-Static System
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An A320 flight crew received an ECAM capt tat warning on short final in heavy rains. They made a safe landing after which the message disappeared. Maintenance was advised.